Second half goal lifts Colleyville Heritage past Southlake

Published 3/6/2015 7:37:35 PM by staff from dallas

Southlake were looking for revenge as they welcomed rivals Colleyville Heritage to Dragon Stadium Friday night in a pivotal District 7-6A match. The Dragons were in dire need of a home victory to keep their hopes alive of jumping to a 2nd place finish.

The first decent chance of the night fell to the home side as a well placed long ball sent Cole Manning in behind the Colleyville defense. Manning's final touch was a bit too heavy allowing goalkeeper Adam Gaudet to clean up the danger. It would only be the first action in a very busy first half for the Heritage senior goalkeeper.

In the 12th minute the visitors broke out on a counter with sophomore Connor Cole supplying a nice cross into the Dragon penalty area. Captain Jackson Zeledon rose and sent the header looping to the corner of the net. Dragon keeper Patrick Leal was up to the task though as he made the diving save. The ball went immediately to the other end where a long range strike forced Adam Gaudet into a great diving save of his own. Chances at both ends, but the keepers were intent on making this a difficult night for the goalscorers.

Pavel Salas came into the match and had a very positive influence in the Colleyville attack. Meanwhile, Cole Manning was clearly the Dragon dangerman before being replaced in the 28th minute. Alex Kluge almost opened the scoring at the half hour mark, but his free kick was palmed away by the diving Gaudet. Clearly Adam Gaudet was the player of the half in the Heritage goal.

A minute later Southlake broke in again as Michael Kays raced in on goal. Do I even need to say what happened? That's right. Adam Gaudet once again with the huge save. The Colleyville defense better step it up as Gaudet cannot possibly keep making save after save.

The game would go to halftime 0-0 with Adam Gaudet the clear hero and Southlake shaking their heads wondering what they had to do to score a goal. Heritage would need to be much better after the break and they were.

The visitors got the first good chance of he second half as Omri Sharf got loose on the break slipping a nice pass to Connor Cole who saw his shot saved by Patrick Leal. Only a minute later it was Cole once again in on the Southlake goal and once again it was Leal to the rescue. He left a fat rebound though for Jackson Zeledon whose low shot was destined for the net. Just before the ball crossed the line it was cleared by a Dragon defender. Suddenly Leal was doing his best Gaudet impression. Heritage were on the front foot though pressing for the lead.

And in the 48th minute the deserved goal came. Jackson Zaledon made a long run beating the Dragon defense and bearing down on Leal in goal. Zeledon's shot was saved but the rebound went high in the air. Connor Cole was waiting and headed home past two sliding Southlake defenders.

It was nearly 2-0 minutes later as Cole slid a pass to Sharf who narrowly missed wide from close range. Funny how much a game could change from half to half. Southlake would need to get going as this match was slipping away.

They began attacking shortly thereafter as Cole Manning forced Adam Gaudet into a save with twenty five minutes left to play. Chances were starting to come for the home side and Calvin Herd swerved a shot wide right a couple of minutes later.

Colleyville would grab back control though as the powerful striker duo of Cole and Zeledon were physically no match for the smaller Southlake defenders. It seemed the two were dangerous every time they got on the ball in the second half. Zeledon almost wrapped it up in the 69th as he got onto another cross, but his header flashed just wide.

Southlake had a grand chance to tie the game late as a corner kick was not dealt with well by the Colleyville defense. A long scramble inside the six yard box left the crowd breathless as the ball bounced around loosely only to finally be cleared to safety.

The Heritage defense stiffened from there. Southlake were unable to generate any offense the last few minutes and Colleyville Heritage had their 1-0 victory at Dragon Stadium. The win assures the Panthers no worse than a second place finish in District 7-6A while Southlake must now scramble to hold onto third place in front of hard charging Haltom.

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